What did you do Outside the shop today?

[Scott NC]

  I had my catalytic converter  stolen at walmart.  I found a few broken sawzall blades under the car.  A puddle of blood would have been nice.

[George N. M.]

Scott, sorry to hear that.  It's pretty bold to do that in such a public place.  Does anyone know what a thief can get for a stolen catalytic converter?  It must be fairly substanial to justify the risk.

G

[M3F]

Man that stinks sorry to hear it. In times like those I can only remind myself not to get upset over things that are out of my control. 

[Les L]

Sorry to hear about that Scott. It's amazing how low down people can be these days, no respect for anyone, including themselves.

[Scott NC]

  It could have been worse I suppose.  They left the tires and missed a tool bag I had on the floorboard.  There's crime in that area.  

[lary]

Hopefully they have surveillance video that will lead to catching the thief (s). 

[Scott NC]

  Maybe, but I'm not holding out hope on that.  It was a borrowed vehicle too!

[Daswulf]

Sorry to hear that Scott. Been thinking of welding up a cage for mine out of rebar. Might add some cable to make it harder for them. Won't stop them if they have time but would sure slow them down or make em think of moving on to an easier target. 

A lot of times they cut more than just the pipe and do additional damage. 

Even worse it was on a borrowed vehicle. 

Hopefully insurance will cover it. 

[Scott NC]

  Yes, I borrowed it to get some lumber and didn't get very far.  I assume insurance cover it.  I've been looking and they sell bolt on security kits so either way I'll add one for him for his inconvenience.

[BillyBones]

20 hours ago, George N. M. said:

Does anyone know what a thief can get for a stolen catalytic converter? 

Depends on what kind of car it came off of. When i was still turning wrenches we made scrap runs with them. I have had 1 get over $800 for, while some will go for around $60 -$100, and some just scrap weight. Really though they do not fetch the prices they did years ago when the majority contained precious metals. 

TW, you can pick up after market cats now for around $80 or so. I know it is better to not spend the money at all but look around for prices so you do not get taken to the bank. Around here a lot of places want to replace the whole exhaust section and that , on my GMC truck for example, is around $1000 just for the part. They are not that difficult to replace either if want to do it yourself. 

[Frosty]

A good trick for people who like to saw through bars is to use tubing with a piece of steel cable in it welded at at least one end. When a saw blade touches the cable it gets grabbed and trapped. Hopefully busting a thief's knuckles and Sawzall in the process.

I hate thieves.

Frosty The Lucky.

[M.J.Lampert]

So after three years I finally got this project into running condition it is either a 73 or 74 skidoo tnt 440 that belonged to either my father of one of his siblings and was parked sometime in the 90's until i pulled it out currently it runs but i have yet to figure out the wiring for lights, gauges and a kill switch (i have the harness but wires were cut and some appear to be missing outright.

 

M.J.Lampert

here is the video of it

Edited January 11 by M.J.Lampert
remove download link to place viewable file

[BillyBones]

I thought skidoo made jet skis ? I do not know i live neither near water nor any where cold enough to need a snowmobile. I have seen them on TV though. 

[Shainarue]

Billy, that would be a sea-doo. 

[M.J.Lampert]

Billybones, Ski-doo and Sea-doo are both owned by the same parent company (same with Can-am, and Evinrude) bombardier Recreational Products

Bombardier Recreational Products - Wikipedia

[BsnNFrnt]

Split a half a cord with the kids. Coldest day of winter so far - not actually all that cold (west Texas). 

[George N. M.]

Full 4'x4'x8' cord  or a face cord (4'x8'x?')?

[BsnNFrnt]

Well, it was more like 5’x20”x10’. Which by math would be real close to the volume of half a true 4’x4’x8’ cord. I cut my firewood well under 2 feet in length due to the size of my woodstove opening. 

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

I do basically the same thing using the 18 inch chainsaw bar as a gauge.

I can't control the wind, all I can do is adjust my sail’s.
Semper Paratus

 

[Shainarue]

My wood stove is tiny. We didn't know we'd have a wood stove until we bought this house in December, so I didn't have any wood pre-chopped, let alone seasoned. So I bought a few bundles from the local store. The max length for the stove is 12" so I've been taking the bundles down to the basement to cut with the miter saw. Figure it works well enough. I'll likely do the same when I start chopping my own supply. It's currently buried under snow & ice, so I'll probably get around to that in Spring, lol

[George N. M.]

And by spring it will be warm enough that you won't need firewood.  So, it will get pushed to the late fall when the Weather Service says it will start snowing within a few hours.

G

[gewoon ik]

 but true, unfortunatly.

[Shainarue]

I'll be motivated to get it split even though I won't need it, since it'll need time to season properly. The previous owners left a decent stack of stumps on the property, which appear to be intended for splitting. But I don't know how long they've been there - and they're stumps so they'll hold moisture longer anyway. I figure if I can get them split, they'll dry that much more effectively. 

I'm also motivated to get that all chopped up so I'm not tempted to use it for my own charcoal production, lol

[George N. M.]

Actually, IMO the highest and best use of stump wood might be charcoal since, depending on the species, it may not split well.  I'd try splitting forst and then, if it was difficult or totally unsuccessful I would figure that I had found my charcoal feed stock.  They can always be turned into chucks with a chain saw.

[Frosty]

Shaina, when you say "stump" unless there are roots attached it isn't a stump. If it's longer than around 10' it's a log, 2' or shorter and it's a "block" 

If you have a pile of stumps George is right, it's best used as charcoal, it isn't going to split well at all. Even if a 40ton splitter will power through it it won't split straight at best you'll get a piece or two that'll go into the stove like picking a lock.

There is a big difference between "seasoned" wood and "Dry wood." Seasoned means the wood was felled in the dead of winter when the sap was at it's lowest making it easier for mills to flush the rest of the sap and pitch out so it doesn't bugger up the saw blades and minimizes warpage. 

Sure you should cut seasoned wood for firewood, then buck and block it and split and stack it to dry. Properly stacked, split wood will dry over a dry summer. Or believe it or not a super cold winter dries split wood very nicely. Wood begins decomposing the instant it is cut and down, even though it's slight the decomposition increases the temperature of the wood. Warm wet exposed to sub zero temps sheds water by evaporation quickly, very quickly below zero f. 

Also nothing splits as easily as frozen green wood, I used to split frozen birch rounds about 16" long with a 7lb. double bitted axe on a 3/4 Boy's handle. It isn't how hard you can hit the round, it's how much SNAP you put into it that does the work. Frozen that is, it holds true for warm green wood but to a lesser extent.

Hand splitting dry wood usually means means getting out the maul, wedges and sledge. You'll stand there beating on every split for several minutes unless you're the hulk. Warm and especially dry is time to rent a splitter, get a gang together, you don't want to do it all solo. You need someone keeping the ready stack full and at least one more, two is better, picking up the splits. You'll set the round, pull the lever and roll it 180 to finish halving it. At that point I like to keep the halves together and roll it 90, split the bottom half, let the top half down, split it and let the helper hand me the next round while the other helpers pick up the quarters and stack them to dry.

Of course that's just how I do it and I've never cut and split oak or maple. Be crazy careful with maple, have pros fell, and buck it IF they're insured so your home owners won't take a hit. Maple has the rep of being one of the most dangerous hard woods to fell and buck.

Frosty The Lucky.

So, get that wood blocked up and split soonest, at least as soon as the thaw starts exposing it.